It provides training in digital media concepts and skills necessary for the creation and production of audio for video games, popular music albums, popular performance concerts, experimental art projects, cinema, commercials and software development.

Students also learn the foundational concepts of video editing, manipulation and generation.As a student in WMU's multimedia arts technology-music program, your studies will revolve around the program's five foundational pillars: audio engineering, creative projects for various media, live sound reinforcement for concerts and shows, computer programming, and performance with technology. You will be required to take 18 to 20 hours of core music classes, a course in music appreciation, a course in music theory, eight credit hours of music performance classes, and 37 to 38 hours of multimedia arts technology courses. You will also be required to take at least nine hours of related courses from other departments or additional sections of the core technology classes.You do not have to be a highly skilled performer on a traditional instrument or read music to enter this program.

As a multimedia arts technology-music student at WMU, you will have the opportunity to record, learn the recording arts, serve as a student engineer and produce songs in the WMU recording studios. Western Sound Studios, which operates as the primary recording facility for the WMU School of Music, operates as a business; therefore, students in upper-level audio engineering classes are essentially interns who assist with professional recording projects. The introductory audio engineering courses occur in the multimedia arts technology production studio, which is a separate facility for student projects and classes. The electronic music lab is a state-of-the-art facility for creative projects.

There are five individual workstations, which constitute the multimedia arts technology lab, for student projects that have advanced digital media software and hardware. The Kalamazoo Laptop Orchestra has a mobile station with 20 laptops, 20 tablets and a variety of gestural controllers. Students have access to a portable live sound reinforcement system that has the capacity for 10.2 channel surround sound and real-time effects processing. The School of Music’s computer lab consists of 18 stations that have basic audio and video software.As a student in this program, you will also be invited to enjoy the School of Music’s constant flow of guest artists for concerts, classes and residencies.